ancestor

Other forms of ancestor

plural

ancestors·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about ancestor

What does ancestor mean?

ancestor means "someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)".

How many syllables are in ancestor?

ancestor has 3 syllables: an-ces-tor. The stress falls on "an". In IPA it is /ˈænˌsɛstɚ/.

What is another word for ancestor?

Close synonyms include ascendant, ascendent, antecedent, root. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of ancestor?

The recorded antonyms are descendant.

Is ancestor a common word?

ancestor is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.